British Championship 2001

The 2001 British Go Championship[1] was decided when Matthew Macfadyen,
the reigning champion, beat the challenger Young Kim in the best-of-five-games title match.
This was held at the Mind Sports Olympiad from 20th to 26th August, and we thank the MSO for
providing the venue for us and also thank Francis Roads, Natasha Regan and Tim Hunt for refereeing the games.

Matthew won the match 3-1 so only four games were required, but congratulations too to Young Kim,
who was the only person to win a game against Matthew in the title match in the previous five years.

Young Kim was born in Seoul, Korea in 1941 and started playing go at the age of 19 years.
At that time Go was not as popular as it is now, and there was no Go teaching in schools.
He was taught by his parents, and achieved correspondence at the age of 26.
He then went on to study Go under the tutelage of a 4 dan professional.
After completing a course of 30 games played with the professional, he achieved his 4 dan
certificate in 1980 from the Korean Baduk association. He has been playing Go in this country
since 1983 but this is his first appearance in the Title Match. His favourite player is Lee Chang Ho.
He is a keen Golfer.

Matthew Macfadyen has competed in the Title Match for the previous 13 years, winning 9 of them.
He learnt the game aged 12, and reached 6 dan before becoming 30. He has been European Go Champion 4 times.
He was teaching Go for a living, offering both individual correspondence courses and group seminars.

Here are the game records from the title match:

Game 1[2] was a game that remained quite close throughout, despite a number of changes
in where one might have thought each player was going to make territory. Matthew won by 4.5 as white.

Game 2[3] appears to have been a slightly easier
win for Matthew, this time with black. The margin was 9.5.

In Game 3[4] Matthew made an uncharacteristic
oversight (expecting move 35 to be played at as an extension down rather than across) early
on and found himself in a lot of trouble. Matthew struggled long and hard, but Young Kim was
able to find an answer to his every struggle, and wrapped up the game without a slip.

In Game 4[5] the fighting started early
and never really stopped, right up until the point where Young Kim had to resign.

Young Kim qualified for the title match by winning the Challenger's League.

The first stage of the 2001 British Go Championship was the Candidates’
Tournament which took place in the Daiwa Foundation[7], a beautiful
building overlooking Regents Park in London, on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th
March. 18 players took part.